It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Astricon, and I don’t know why I don’t do this every year.

Asterisk has a fantastic community, and Astricon has matured into an expertly-run conference, packed full of solid content, delivered by some of the best of the best, with a friendly and high-energy crowd. If you’re in any way interested in Asterisk, this is a must-do event.

This year, I was looking to get a sense of where people’s heads are at with respect to WebRTC, and I wasn’t disappointed. There’s lots of work being done on that front, and while the standard itself is still in development, the open-source community is right there, ready with the technology, in as mature a state as is possible with an emerging technology. I was pleased, and heartened, to experience the skill, professionalism, and downright enthusiasm with which this new technology is being embraced.

There’s a general consensus in technology that voice is dead, but all you have to do is make one visit to Astricon, and you’ll see that just because VoIP isn’t the next-cool-thing, doesn’t mean it’s dead. What energy! What a fantastic crowd!

Astricon gave me a chance to re-connect with many folks I haven’t seen in many years, and I realized that the loss was mine. Going forward, I think I’ll be making Astricon a yearly thing.